By David Sharrock
The Times (United Kingdom)
November 26, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6932430.ece
The Christian Brothers religious order is to give €161 million (£146 million) in cash and property in reparation for its role in decades of child abuse in Ireland.
The Brothers said that €34 million in cash would be used to help victims of abuse, whose plight was identified in a government report in May. However, the move was criticised, with one victims' group describing it as "mere smoke and mirrors".
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| A Vatican tapestry depicts Edmund Ignatius Rice, the order's founder |
The Ryan report chronicled cases of tens of thousands of children who suffered systematic sexual, physical and mental abuse over decades at residential homes run by 18 congregations. It concluded that the Brothers order was responsible for most of the cases.
A transfer of €127 million in property will be used to "begin to repair trust with so many people in Ireland, who felt betrayed by the Brothers", the order said in a statement. "We understand and regret that nothing we say or do can turn back the clock for those affected by abuse," the statement said. "Our response reflects the moral obligation we collectively and individually feel."
One victims' group called the announcement "an exercise in the art of sophistry by its supreme practitioners in Ireland". Irish Survivors of Child Abuse said: "An Enigma machine is not needed to see through the smoke and mirrors delivered by the Christian Brothers today.
"The only 'new money' on the table appears to be €34 million — payable over a number of years."
The Christian Brothers made their announcement on the eve of publication of another report, which is expected to shake the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. A long-awaited interim report of the commission of investigation into clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Dublin is expected to say today that the church hierarchy covered up allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
The report was discussed by the Cabinet on Tuesday. Publication has been repeatedly delayed over fears that it might prejudice further prosecutions. For this reason, some parts of the report will be withheld. The Brothers, which played a leading role in the education of Irish children and were Ireland's largest male teaching order, said they were shamed and sorrowed at the extent of abuse of children in its care.
The pledge follows a wave of public anger. The order came in for devastating criticism in the Ryan report.
Its publication was delayed by several years after a lengthy legal battle waged by the Brothers to withhold the names of all its members, dead or alive. An agreement was eventually struck in 2004, allowing the Brothers' institutions to be identified.
More than a thousand witnesses testified to abuse in 216 schools and residential settings between 1914 and 2000. More than 800 individuals were identified as physical or sexual abusers — an extraordinary number compared with the handful of prosecutions and convictions. Ninety per cent of witnesses reported physical abuse while half reported sexual abuse.
"Acute and chronic contact and non-contact sexual abuse was reported, including vaginal and anal rape, molestation and voyeurism in both isolated cases and on a regular basis over long periods of time," the report said.
The commission found that the worst offender was the Brothers' order, which ran most of the institutions for older boys, while the another Catholic order, the Sisters of Mercy, which was supposed to care for girls, also came in for heavy criticism.
The report said that cases were managed "with a view to minimising the risk of public disclosure and consequent damage to the institution and the Congregation".
"A climate of fear, created by pervasive, excessive and arbitrary punishment, permeated most of the institutions and all those run for boys. Children lived with the daily terror of not knowing where the next beating was coming from," it said.
Hundreds of pages detail the horrors of life at specific institutions. "It was a secret enclosed world, run on fear," one Brother told the commission about St Joseph's Industrial School in Tralee, Co Kerry.
Glin Industrial School, Co Limerick, was where "Brothers with a known propensity for sexual abuse were transferred, indicating a serious indifference to the safety of children".
A chapter is devoted to a Christian Brother given the pseudonym of John Brander — real name Donal Dunne, who was convicted in 1999 of his crimes and given a two-year prison sentence — which describes his progress through six different schools where he physically terrorised and sexually abused children in his classroom.
The report says that his career, while shocking in itself, illustrated the ease with which sexual predators could operate within the educational system of the state without fear of disclosure or sanction.
Once a mighty institution which did much to form Ireland's national identity, there are now just 250 Brothers in Ireland, with an average age of 74.
Today's report into clerical abuse in Dublin Archdiocese will reveal that the Catholic hierarchy and state authorities failed to respond to allegations of clerical child abuse made against a sample of 46 priests.
"The Dublin Archdiocese behaved in a manner that was absolutely reprehensible. Over the space of 20 years, they moved the problem on, looked after their own financial interests, looked after their priests and not the victims. The Archdiocese is centre-stage. Once you read it, it jumps out at you," a Government source told the Irish Independent newspaper.
The report contains 100 pages of findings and 500 pages of specific detail on cases of abuse by 46 priests. The compensation bill for the victims of child abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese is set to double to more than €20 million.
The Archdiocese has identified up to 450 suspected victims who were abused as children and 120 civil actions were taken against 35 Dublin priests, or priests who held positions in the diocese.
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